- Three investors have sought the intervention of Parliament fearing they could lose their money.
- The petitioners claimed the company has been trying to sell off its properties and they fear it might dissolve with their money.
Image: FILE
Cytonn Investments has assured jittery investors who put their lifetime savings into one of its projects that they have not lost a single shilling of their money.
Appearing before National Assembly’s Public Petitions Committee, CEO Edwin Dande said his firm has not misappropriated any money or declined to refund investors who opted out of the project.
Dande told the committee his firm raised Sh10 billion for the project from some 4,000 individuals.
He said funds for the Ridge Project in the Ridgeways area in Nairobi were managed in strict accordance with the respective constitutive documents and the Investments Policy Statement.
“It will take us longer but we will realise the journey. We are working to refund those who opted out of the project,” he told the committee.
“We put money exactly where we proposed. Allegations that investors’ money has been lost or mismanaged are unfounded.”
Three investors have sought the intervention of Parliament fearing they could lose their money.
In a petition filed by Alego Usonga MP Sam Atandi to the National Assembly, Josephine Awuor, Caroline Atieno and Omondi Abonyo said the company has delayed refunding their money after the housing project failed to take off.
The petitioners claimed the company has been trying to sell off its properties and they fear it might dissolve with their money.
“Efforts to ensure the company honours the agreement with investors have not been productive despite further engagement with the Capital Markets Authority,” they added.
The petitioners stated that the company placed adverts for one-bedroom apartments valued at Sh7.8 million along Kiambu Road in Kiambu County.
“By the year 2018, some investors who were paying by instalment had each paid in excess of Sh3.9 million during which time it seemed the company had started to experience internal financial problems since no construction ever started,” the petitioners said.
On Tuesday, Dande told the committee the project progressed well until 2020 when it started experiencing liquidity due to a number of factors key among them the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the only complaint by the petitioners, which is true, is that he is not able to refund them their money now.
He regretted that Cytonn embarked on too many projects at the same time, which he blamed for the firm’s current situation.
“At the time, there was too much money coming in,” he explained.
The Ridge consisting of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units was done alongside several other real estate projects including Applewood in Karen, Riverrun in Kiambu, and The Alma in Ruaka among others.
He said only 400 out of the 4,000 investors have a problem with the firm’s restructuring plan.
Dande welcomed an audit of the firm to establish whether money was lost, as Vihiga MP Ernest Kagesi suggested.
“An audit should probably be done to establish whether no money has been lost as the firm is claiming,” the legislator said.
Dande maintained that those who want their money back will be refunded at the right time, and in accordance with the contractual agreement.
“Nobody has been conned. When people are used to an environment of corruption, they will always think they have been conned when there are some delays,” he added.
“I also convinced my family members to invest in the project; my father, my mother and my uncles. I could have told them very early that the project was not going as expected.”
In their prayer petitioners want the House to hold the CEO responsible for mismanagement and secure a timely refund of investors’ money.